Browsing by Subject "experiment"
Now showing items 1-9 of 9
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(HECER - Helsinki Center of Economic Research, 2015)HECER Discussion Paper ; 396
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(2017)Food wastage is a growing environmental, financial, and social problem: as much as one-third of all food is thrown away. Simultaneously, malnutrition is a huge problem globally, and many people even in developed countries are unable to provide for their basic needs. A lot of attention is paid to food waste prevention in the industry, retail sector, and households, whereas the role of the food service sector (such as restaurants and canteens providing food in schools, hospitals, and workplaces) has thus far been understudied. This article uses a practice theoretical approach to study a leftover lunch service first tested in Jyvaskyla in 2013. It describe how the experiment was organized, how the service has spread around Finland, and how the leftover lunch has become a routine that outlines the course of the day of the diners. These findings are used to illustrate the insights of the service for both environmental and social sustainability, and to situate the service in the field of food waste prevention and food redistribution in Finland.
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(JACoW Publishing, 2022)IPACThe Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research FAIR, in Darmstadt Germany, will be one of the largest accelerator laboratories worldwide. The Superconducting FRagment Separator (Super-FRS)* is one of its main components. The Super-FRS can produce, separate and deliver high-energy radioactive beams with intensities up to 1e11 ions/s, covering projectiles from protons up to uranium and it can be used as an independent experimental device. The Gas Electron Multiplier-based Time Projection Chambers (GEM-TPC) in twin configuration is a newly developed beam tracking detector capable of providing spatial resolution of less than 1 mm with a tracking efficiency close to 100% at 1 MHz counting rate. The GEM-TPC (HGB4) was tested at the FRagment Separator (FRS), with 238U beam at 850 MeV/u. A new clusterization method was developed, for the first time and used for an analysis. This method allowed to access to waveforms of each strip signal within a single trigger in an event-by-event basis. The procedures involved in this method will be shown in details.
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(Helsingin yliopisto, 2018)The concept of ecological management can be seen tackling the relationship of agriculture and environment, not only from the perspective of limiting the negative effects of farming practices, but also promoting positive actions. This notion of managing and maintaining, rather than leaving alone, is currently in the core of biodiversity promotion in agricultural landscapes in Europe. The focus of this thesis are the perceptions Finnish agri-environmental actors have regarding ecological management innovation stemming from the grassroots. In this thesis I assess how i) Finnish agri-environmental actors perceive grassroots innovation, ii) weigh its barriers and enabling factors, as well as iii) envision further needs regarding these innovations. The study is based on a mixed-methods approach using both qualitative and quantitative data; a questionnaire and two focus group discussions conducted during a two-day seminar “Managing Nature - working together” 29.11.-30.11.2016 in Turku. The study was conducted in co-operation with the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), University of Helsinki Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry and a Horizon2020 project HNV-Link. I approached the research questions using an iterative approach, and my analysis is guided by Grounded Theory in constant comparative analysis and generating theory. The results indicate that Finnish agricultural actors acknowledge the heterogeneous nature of grassroots actors in agricultural areas. However, several common attributes are linked to innovation stemming from the grassroots such as practical, economic and local. Currently bureaucracy, lack of cooperation and the changes and challenges in the socio-cultural environment of grassroots hinder ecological management grassroots innovation. Finnish agri-environmental actors acknowledge that the challenges biodiversity in agricultural areas face, are of such magnitude that the need is rather to expand, not narrow down the actor-base for innovation.
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(Helsingin yliopisto, 2021)Previous research in political economy has emphasized corporate lobbying as a pathway through which businesses influence government policy. This thesis examines a less-studied mode of influence: private regulation, defined as voluntary efforts by firms to restrain their own business, in the context of Finnish private elderly care. The thesis suggests that profits in elderly care is a particularly controversial policy issue that suffers from market repugnance, defined as a situation where there might be willing suppliers and demanders of certain transactions, but an aversion to those transactions by others restrain or even stop the transactions. Now, this thesis assert that elderly care firms can use modest private regulation as a political strategy to decrease market repugnance and in so doing preempt more stringent government regulations that could hinder profit making. To test this hypothesis, this thesis organized a survey experiment, where university students and young professionals participated. The survey experiment revealed that the subjects reacted to a private regulation initiative (PRI) by firms. When subjects were asked whether profits should be allowed in elderly care, they held more positive views towards profits after exposed to the PRI. The same dynamic also materialized when subjects evaluated whether firms should be allowed to independently determine minimum staffing requirement per elderly. Furthermore, subjects were also more trustful in the prospect that elderly care firms prioritize the health of elderly before profits, after informed with the PRI. The findings in this thesis have potentially significant societal implications particularly in the domain of private sector influence on social- and healthcare policy. Private regulation is a political strategy that firms can use to decrease demand for stringent government regulation. In addition, the results suggest that firms needn’t use a lot of resources to decrease demand for regulation. However, the results also suggest that there is a demand among the public for more socially responsible firms. Even those on the Left are ready to reward firms that display a tangible commitment to responsible conduct with greater freedoms and increased legitimacy. This could ideally nudge firms towards a more responsible and a more societally embedded conduct.
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(Taylor & Francis, 2019)Cartography and Geographic Information ScienceAnimations have become a frequently utilized illustration technique on maps but changes in their graphical loading remain understudied in empirical geovisualization and cartographic research. Animated streamlets have gained attention as an illustrative animation technique and have become popular on widely viewed maps. We conducted an experiment to investigate how altering four major animation parameters of animated streamlets affects people’s reading performance of field maxima on vector fields. The study involved 73 participants who performed reaction-time tasks on pointing maxima on vector field stimuli. Reaction times and correctness of answers changed surprisingly little between visually different animations, with only a few occasional statistical significances. The results suggest that motion of animated streamlets is such a strong visual cue that altering graphical parameters makes only little difference when searching for the maxima. This leads to the conclusion that, for this kind of a task, animated streamlets on maps can be designed relatively freely in graphical terms and their style fitted to other contents of the map. In the broader visual and geovisual analytics context, the results can lead to more generally hypothesizing that graphical loading of animations with continuous motion flux could be altered without severely affecting their communicative power.
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(IPC Science and Technology Press, 2022)Energy PolicyField experiments have shown that information nudging can help households to save energy, however, the effectiveness varies depending on aspects such as information content, delivery mode and study area. This article evaluates the impacts of information nudges on residential electricity consumption with a randomized field experiment. This opt-in experiment was conducted in Finland. Information was administered via monthly email newsletters and an online energy service platform. The aim is to find out whether i) energy saving tips combined with and without online energy service platform providing electricity consumption information, and ii) peer comparisons (i.e., social norm) influence households’ electricity consumption. The results show a high seasonal variation in the treatment effects within the groups who were registered users of the online energy service platform. Those with access to usage feedback and versatile energy savings tips (without the social norm comparisons) reduced their electricity consumption around 10% in wintertime. The results imply challenges in encouraging energy saving behavior among households less interested in following their electricity consumption.
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(2020)Introduction and Aims Online gambling advertising and user-generated gambling content have increased. This study used a social psychological online experiment to analyse young people's reactions towards and self-reported interests in social media gambling messages. Design and Methods A vignette experiment with a two-level between-subjects factor (group condition or control condition) and three two-level within-subjects factors (expressed stance on gambling, narrative perspective and majority opinion) was conducted with two samples of young Finnish people aged 15 to 25 years (N = 1200, 50% female, mean age 21.29 years) and 15 to 30 years (N = 230, 53% female, mean age 24.35 years). Participants were asked to indicate how they would react to presented gambling messages (i.e. like or dislike the content) and how interesting would the content appear to them. In addition to experimental factors, the Attitudes Towards Gambling Scale and a global self-esteem measure were used as the independent variables. A statistical analysis included multilevel linear and logistic regressions. Results Young people preferred anti-gambling messages instead of pro-gambling messages. This effect was moderated by personal gambling attitudes as participants with highly positive gambling attitudes preferred pro-gambling content. Fact-driven messages were favoured over experience-driven messages. Positive majority opinions predicted more favourable reactions and positive interest. Discussion and Conclusions Young people prefer anti-gambling content and factual argumentation but their online behaviour is also influenced by perceived group norms. The potential risks of online gambling promotion mainly concern young people already interested in gambling.